US move to restore Cuba ties under fire in Congress

US move to restore Cuba ties under fire in Congress
Some US lawmakers say President Barack Obama has conceded too much to
President Raul Castro without securing guarantees of political change
Jo Biddle, Agence France-Presse
Published 7:52 AM, Feb 04, 2015

WASHINGTON DC, USA – Plans to restore ties with Cuba came under fire
Tuesday, February 3, in the first volley of a long battle in the
Republican-led Congress amid accusations the Obama administration is
conceding too much with few guarantees on human rights.

Potential 2016 White House hopeful Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban
immigrants who has been loudly critical of the change to the decades-old
policy, presided over a packed Senate subcommittee hearing to examine
the impact of the US policy.

“I have deep reservations and in many instances direct opposition to
many of the changes… for the simple reason that I believe that they
will not be effective in bringing about the sort of political opening on
the island of Cuba that all of us desire,” Rubio told the committee.

He pointed out that Cuba was the only country in the Western hemisphere
which has not had a free election in the past 15 years, with power
passing from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul.

“The notion that somehow we should be more patient with Cuba than all
these other societies is quite frankly unfair and offensive,” Rubio said.

US President Barack Obama has urged Congress to lift the crippling US
embargo, imposed in 1962, which has been a major source of tension
between the Cold War-era rivals.

But some US lawmakers say Obama has conceded too much to President Raul
Castro without securing guarantees of political change.

Leading Cuban activists testified in person to the panel about
continuing human rights abuses in the Caribbean island.

“Cuba continues to be a country with a one-party government where
fundamental freedoms that are an absolute right in North American
society are crimes against what they regard as ‘state security,” said
Berta Soler, president of the Cuban Ladies in White.

“While these conditions prevail, it is not possible to speak of a
willingness to change on the part of the Castroite regime,” she insisted.

But activist and journalist Miriam Leiva, the wife of the late Cuban
dissident Oscar Manuel Espinosa Chepe, called for the US embargo to be
lifted.

“The American policy towards the Cuban government has dis-served it for
56 years, so it must be changed,” she said.

No illusions

The top US diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, stressed the
administration was “under no illusions about the continued barriers to
internationally recognized freedoms that remain for the Cuban people.”

But she maintained the half-century freeze in ties and the US economic
embargo “though rooted in the best intentions, failed to empower the
Cuban people, and isolated us from our democratic partners in this
hemisphere.”

Instead, the Cuban authorities had used it “as a rationale for
restrictions on its people. As a result, unfortunately and
unintentionally, those most deprived were the Cuban people,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson, who led the first negotiations on restoring diplomatic ties
last month in Havana, stressed the initiative was aimed at promoting
democratic change in Cuba and that the US would not sacrifice any
principles as part of the new policy.

Senator Robert Menendez however said 18 months of secret negotiations
had led to a “bad deal for the Cuban people.”

“While it may have been done with the best of intentions, in my view
we’ve compromised bedrock principles for virtually no concessions,”
Menendez said.

The negotiations are due to resume this month in Washington.

“We have only begun the official talks on normalizing relations – which
will take considerably longer than the first step, which is the
re-establishment of diplomatic relations,” Jacobson said. – Rappler.com

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